Tea Party Funders are Reportedly Looking to Buy Major Newspapers

This isn't about Fox News specifically, but it's related. The Koch brothers, noted bankrollers of the Tea Party and other conservative "grassroots" activity, are reportedly considering a bid to acquire eight major newspapers, including biggies such as the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times.

It's mostly innuendo at this point, but it's emotionally charged innuendo. According to Harold Meyerson at the Washington Post, the brothers themselves haven't commented beyond saying they'll "respect the independence" of whatever journalistic institutions they buy. But Meyerson isn't so sure; given their penchant for aggressively promoting right-wing causes, might the brothers be planning turn the papers into the print equivalent of Fox News? Some on the right, of course would be delighted with that. That bastion of journalistic integrity, breitbart.com, reports rumors of a campaign among journalists to stop the sale. "Naturally," breitbart sneers, "this campaign will be disguised in the lofty ideal of 'objective journalism', which has been the media's Big Lie for decades. But the real goal will be to bully one of their own into protecting the media's ideological purity."

We and our friends at Brave New Foundation have noted before that the Koch brothers appear willing to spend whatever it takes to spread their brand of conservatism across America. Your humble servant will be watching this development with interest.

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Let them buy all the major newspapers in the Country,who cares.
Hardly anybody reads newspapers anymore,the kids don’t,the mindless sheep don’t,those who still do have to put up with thousands of adds and practically no news and if they report any news its usually mostly fabricated and poorly researched.So that leaves the ignorant obnoxious teabags and they already twist the news their way,and I like to add the Koch Brothers are the Teaparty.

The sad part is that, if this is allowed, every person has their price. The Kochs meet it, we can kiss whatever fairness these outlets have goodbye.

Conservatives in the media haven’t been honest (let alone fair) since Reagan deregulated the FCC and ended the fairness doctrine. I can’t think of one one outlet catering to them that tells the truth without it seeming like an accident.

@ Joseph West: “It’s funny that “the Real Teabagger” says “when we started the Teabagging movement in 2007,” he fails to mention that his little movement didn’t seem to make any significant impact on the American consciousness until the Spring of 2009."*

Correct.

That’s because Spring 2009 was right after the Kenyan Muslim Usurper moved into the White House.

And therein lies the REAL reason for the Teabaggers’ existence — they’re nothing more than a bunch of overgrown two-year-olds who stamped their feet and yelled the moment the black guy with the funny name got in theirWhite House.

The Kochsucker Brothers simply tapped into that anger and funded them, effectively turning them from a ragtag bunch of angry rednecks carrying misspelled signs into a PAC that got people into Congress, aided and abetted by a sympathetic media arm {Fox.}

But, as is normal with two-year-olds, the tantrum subsided — in the teabaggers’ case, that occured around mid/late-2011: teabagger events stared declining around that time, and the few there were got less press coverage, because the Kochsucker Brothers then devoted all their time and money towards getting their fellow one percenter [Mitt Romney] into the WH . . .

It’s funny that “the Real Teabagger” says “when we started the Teabagging movement* in 2007,” he fails to mention that his little movement didn’t seem to make any significant impact on the American consciousness until the Spring of 2009. Where was his group during the GOP primaries in 2008? All the major races produced pretty moderate conservative GOPers (not even Sarah Palin—the Teabagger Goddess—made much mention of any type of tea until the Spring of 2009) and there wasn’t any “Teabagging Caucus” in Congress until the Spring of 2009.

*Not to be confused with a bowel movement—although both do produce similar results.

I currently have (and have had for many years) a subscription for the Chicago Tribune. The truth is, it has ALWAYS been a VERY conservative newspaper, and many times I read it while holding my nose.
If the Koch’s are successful in their bid, of course, I will immediately cancel any subscription, but, truthfully, these newspapers are hanging on by their fingernails. I’m not sure that even Koch money can restore these former behemoths to a point of serious influence. Has Rupert’s WSJ been any more influential since he bought it? I really don’t know, but I’d bet that it hasn’t.